To: falcon3 (Falcon3 Mailing list) Bcc: falcon3-outgoing Subject: Falcon3 Digest V1 : I97 Falcon3 Digest Volume 1 : Issue 97 Tue Dec 8 22:03:44 PST 1992 Compilation copyright (C) 1992 Jeff Beadles Send submissions to "falcon3@onion.rain.com" Send add/drop requests to "listserv@onion.rain.com" For an index of back issues that are available, send a message containing the line "send index from falcon3" to "netlib@onion.rain.com" Also, the archives are available via ftp from onion.rain.com [147.28.0.161] Today's Topics: Sending wingman home.. white@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Brad Whi Re: Falcon3 Digest V1 : I96 pacdata!jimh@uunet.UU.NET (Jim Hark Where to get Thrustmaster RCS knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Re: Sending wingman home.. knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Avoiding missiles & enemies EADIE5295@iscsvax.uni.edu Re: Avoiding Missiles darons@netcom.com (Daron Stinnett) ------------------------------------------------------------ From: white@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Brad White) Subject: Sending wingman home.. Well I finally finished all the lessons and have moved onto someof the red flag missions I have downloaded from Onion. However, we were low on fule last mission and I hit shift-H to tell my wingman to go home, but all it did was change the HUD color, like just h does. Is shift H only new for OFT? Thanks Brad BTW no one answered my previous question about what the mapping program for just f3.0 was called, thanks in advance Brad ------------------------------- From: pacdata!jimh@uunet.UU.NET (Jim Harkins) Subject: Re: Falcon3 Digest V1 : I96 > Howdy all Falconeers, > since I have a TCA and VFR chart of the Las Vegas Area, I thought > I'ld do a little sight seeing with my F16, to find out how > accurate the representation of Las Vegas really is. I've got the maps that came with the game. Problem is, I have no idea how to correlate them to what I see in the game itself. How do I translate map location to CRT location when planning missions? jim ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Where to get Thrustmaster RCS I'm fixing to buy a rudder control system (TM RCS). Does anyone have any opinions as to where I should or should not get these? Thanks, Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Re: Sending wingman home.. This is probably of interest to everyone... > Thanks for the response. I was going by the keyboard overlay I downloaded > when I quoted shift-h for sending wingman home. Well if it is not available > in F3.0, then what do I do if I know he is hurt and should just leave? Never press a bad situation. Turn around, go home, and live to fight another day. If you were really in that plane, rather than flying a computer, what would YOU do? Would you really send the poor slob home with a broken plane without anyone to protect him? Would you really want to wander in to a combat zone alone or with no backup or with less than what is necessary to get the job done? Many times, I have seen armchair pilots (including myself, I confess) press on with invincible determination, convincved that they can save the world on their own. I think previous flight sims have perpetuated this myth that you can do it alone. While I like having the command available, think twice about using it. If you are sending you wingmen home, maybe you should be going with them (i.e. change your waypoint to home base). About the only time I send my wingmen home is when we get back to base, I can force them to land. The only other time I can think of is when bogeys are bearing down on my flight which is returning to base with someone hurt. I can order my wingmen home and try to cover them for as long as possible, but this stunt is an easy way to get a trip home in a box. If you pull it off, you ought to get a medal, if not, oh well. It's too bad Falcon 3 doesn't have squadron (or more likely wing) commanders who call you into their office, make you stand at attention and yell at you every time you do something you shouldn't. I think we'd learn a little faster that way. Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: EADIE5295@iscsvax.uni.edu Subject: Avoiding missiles & enemies Here's my method of avoiding anti-aircraft missiles: First I hit [*] on the keypad. This gives me padlock view and will tell me what I need to know about the incoming missile (heatseeking or radar-guided). Then I hit [9] on the regular keys for track view. Track view, like padlock, will lock onto that missile first (the one that's locked onto you). So if you go to track view while a missile is tracking you, you will be able to see yourself and that missile. I find it much easier to dogfight using the track view. So I try to turn so that I am almost perpendicular to the missile's flight path, but just a little bit more towards the missile. When it starts to get close, I turn towards it until it flies past me (using chaff or flares of course). Here's a tip that might come in handy: If you ever need to get away from enemy fighters, just fly extremely low. It works well over flat areas. Here's an example: I was in Korea, and I was out on a mission in which I went into enemy territory with extra fuel so I could send my wingmen home and I could get the badguys. Well, I expended virtually everything except my guns and I was ready to head home. A couple of Mirages showed up and I downed one with my last sidewinder and I found myself flying circles trying to get the other Mirage, getting_extremely_low on fuel. So I decided to go AB5 and dive for the ground as I headed for home. He shot a heat-seeker, and I avoided it. I'm now diving again, trying to get to low altitude, and he shoots another missile at me, and I avoided that one, too. But I soon found myself flying at 39 feet, straight and level, and the little #$%^*@ ceased firing, and soon was out of visual range. I was did some more AB5 and my fuel ran out seconds later. I was about 30 miles from base and I was just going to coast it onto the runway. An An-12 flew in front of me, and I shot it up with my M61. Just as I was preparing to land, I was destroyed by gunfire from a MiG-19. Great story, huh? (Yea, right...) -- Trent Eadie ------------------------------- From: darons@netcom.com (Daron Stinnett) Subject: Re: Avoiding Missiles > or flare or both. The real key for me is doing all this while in padlock > view. When a Radar SAM comes my way, I aim right for the missle. I have > noticed that this probably screws the missles' lock on your plane more than > anything else (if your radar is on). When the missle is at a range of 1-3 > miles pull high Gs' and drop the flare/chaff. There are four ways to avoid being shot down by a missile. The first is to make sure that missile is never launched in your direction. There is lots of info in the manual to cover this, so lets concentrate on spoofing a missile that has been launched. Oops! I lied! there are five ways to avoid a missile up the ***: avoid the launch, and 4 layers of defense after launch: 1. ECM (in the case of radar guided missiles) 2. Chaff & Flares 3. Maneuvering 4. Counter strike (for passive radar air-to-air missiles such as Apex) ECM - This is a no brainer -- just turn it on whenever your "LCK" indicator lights up (especially when LCK and LNH are lit up). This is the first line of defense for radar guided missiles of all types. ECM will vary in effectivness depending on the size and distance of the emmision source. Be sure to keep ECM usage to a minimum in the campaign though, the enemy will detect this and vector some fast movers into your area. Chaff & Flares - Get these out early! With every flare of chaff packet released, there is a chance to distract the incomming missile. The longer it's outthere, the more chance it will be distracted. This is not totally realistic to real life -- but that's the way it works. Maneuvering - This is your last line of defense. Your goal is to create a situation where the missile cannot turn hard enough to keep up with your plane. There are a lot of similarities between maneuvering against a missile and maneuvering against an enemy plane. If you start jinking when the missile is still 5 miles away, then small corrections by the missile will keep the missile pointed directly at you. But, since the missile will try to keep pointed directly at your plane (ie. it doesn't lead you), if you fly towards the missile at a 45 degree angle, you will force the missile to constantly adjust its heading to keep pointed at your plane. The closer the missile, the more correction it will have to make. This alone will not create a turning problem for the missile, but if you time it right, you can pull hard into the missile and put it into a situation where it cannot turn hard enough to keep up. Counter Strike - This will work very well against enemy fighters armed with passive radar missiles such as the Apex. The Apex uses the launching fighter as its radar source -- it follows the radar beam that is emited by then launching aircraft. If you can either destroy the enemy fighter or cause the enemy to lose its lock on you, the missile will have no radar beam to ride. You can achieve this by quickly firing a missile on the fighter who launched the missile -- don't worry about getting a kill - just the fact that a missile is heading his way will cause your opponent to forget about guiding that missile and start doing defensive maneuvers. Basically, you want to do anything that will cause your opponent to have to point his nose in any direction other than at you. You can also counter strike a SAM but this is tricky. If you destroy radar station for the SAM the missile will go wild. But you not only have to destroy the SAM site before the missile gets you, but you also have to get it before the missile goes active -- beyond that point, the SAM no longer needs the ground based radar. Fortunately the SAM operator will usually try to guide the missile to your general location before switching the missile to active. . It is true that IR missiles are the most difficult to evade. This is because of the four things you can do once a missile has been launched, only two will do any good. Just remember to get those flares out ASAP. Then work on setting up the proper geometry to out turn the missile. - Daron - -- ------------------------------- [[ End of digest Volume 1 : Issue 97 ]]